Gains
and Outcomes
Several
tools are available to help you measure the outcomes and
skills gains of your WEP.
Return
on Investment (RoI) methods are applied for in-depth
quantitative evaluation of programs by employers who want to
have very concrete information about the value of investing in
workplace basic skills development. For them, RoI
measurement is crucial. Generally, RoI expresses the
financial return on corporate investment by measuring the full
cost of training and relating it to corporate financial
performance.
MEASURING
OUTCOMES
Assessment
Sheet
This simple, one page tool asks
employers to review a checklist of 11 basic skills gained by
employees through workplace education programs and identify:
1) Which skills did their employees
gain?
2) Which skill gains were measured?
Download a copy of this simple tool: Assessment
Sheet
Self-Assessment
Guide
An organizational Self-Assessment Guide by the American Society
for Training & Development (ASTD) includes an Employee
Education, Training and Development section in the Human
Resource Development and Management Workbook for
assessing workplace education programs and their impact on
employee jobs.
URL: http://www.workforce-excellence.net/html/product2.htm
The
Employability Competency System by CASAS is a structure
for evaluating individual's strengths and weaknesses as they
relate to employability
competencies. Matching learner needs to instruction
programs and evaluating learner progress and competency gains
are also part of the system.
URL: http://www.casas.org/05Employability/05EmployabilityOverview.cfm
Employers
can use this sample evaluation form to evaluate the
effectiveness of their worker mentoring program.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/23/12/46.php
This
Training Evaluation Form can be used by employees to
evaluate the effectiveness of training they have taken part in
and of their instructors. Training participant feedback can be a
useful measure of training success.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/22/13/37.php
These
planning questions will help employers sort out the nuts
and bolts of the value of training. The questions, such as who
needs training and how training will be assessed, include
examples.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/10/223931.php
The Business Value
Assessment toolkit helps practitioners and their
employer partners assess the business value of their workforce
services. Developed in manufacturing and
health care workplaces, the Business Value Assessment toolkit is
adaptable and can be applied to a variety of workforce
development services, settings and industries.
URL:
http://www.aspenwsi.org/BVAToolkit.asp
CAELA offers a
digest on planning, implementing and evaluating workplace ESL
programs.
URL:
http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/PLANNINGQA.html
The FreePatentsOnline search engine
allows advanced search techniques such as word stemming,
proximity searching relevancy ranking and search term weighing
to help you find exactly what you are looking for. Other
features permit organizing, annotation and sharing of documents.
URL:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/
MEASURING
ROI
RoI
measurement of workplace education programs is possible using a
variety of evaluation software packages. Several RoI
packages are available for a fee from consultants, who also
offer professional services to help employers apply them to
their WEPs. The advantage of this approach is that the
experts can help you ensure you get an accurate result that is
customized to meet your need.
One
RoI tool is available for download without charge and can be
used independently.
Purchase
For
an established consulting company that has measured a number of
public and private sector organizations' WEPs and offers
specialized, customizable RoI software, contact:
URL: http://www.imperialcorp.com
For
a combination of training media selection and RoI software,
ADVISOR 3.5, see:
URL: http://www.bnhexpertsoft.com/adv3new.htm
Without
Charge
For
a corporate RoI methodology already in use within Lord
Corporation, a large North Carolina-based company, that may be
applied by other companies, see: RoI
Method.
Workforce
HR Trends and Tools presents several formulas
for calculating the return-on-investment in technology-based
training. The formulas can help employers calculate cost savings
and ROI, and perform a break-even or cost-benefit analysis.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/section/11/article/22/13/78.html
This
report talks about methods for evaluating
training/education offerings based on financial return and these
methods include both quantitative and qualitative assessments.
URL:
http://www.careertools.org/rlib/doc_display.asp?docn=8386
This
article shows how ROI is a measure of the benefits of
training against the costs. The ROI is expressed as a concrete,
numerical measure that gives employers more clout in justifying
the time and money spent for training.
URL:
http://www.cuna.org/data/newsnow/spec_reports/cpd/cpd4.html
The
free Training Payoff Calculator, from Addison, IL-based
OneOnOne Computer Training, helps executives calculate the ROI
from training. The calculator works with variables, such as the
number of people to be trained, average learning time, and costs
of training effort to produce projections of profit and ROI.
URL: http://www.oootraining.com/ooo/support/calculator.html
Staffing-Assessment
Tools can help employers measure the return on investment of
an assessment tool. The formulas will help you gauge the impact
of a bad hire, a good hire, turnover, and a more efficient
staff.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/section/06/article/23/40/88.html
Using
an HR Audit, such as this one used by the Commonwealth of
Virginia, allows organizations to examine their recruiting,
training, benefits, and labor relations policies.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/section/09/article/23/39/64.html#Explanation%20of%20Department%20Organization%20Questionnaire
Make
training more accountable by incorporating these guiding principles
as operating standards in your return-on-investment methodology.
Standards and guiding principles keep the evaluation credible
and allow for replication of the methodology.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/23/31/90.php
To
measure true cost for ROI purposes, consider indirect
costs along with direct costs. Companies differ in how they
calculate the cost of internal training, but most include the
direct costs incurred by the training function, which are
discussed in this article.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/22/13/88.php
A
Canadian sector council report on calculating the return on
training investment includes checklists to help employers
identify costs and benefits and a case study example.
URL: http://www.nssc.ca/files/roti.pdf
(1.03 MB)
This article
shows how to balance short-term profit with long-term investment
in human capital (Benefits
& Compensation Digest). Due to socioeconomic shifts
including an impending demographic meltdown and a fall in U.S.
workforce productivity, it is increasingly important to
measure the effectiveness of every human capital development
effort through calculating its return on investment (ROI).
URL:
http://www.imperialcorp.com/whatsnew.html
For
problems or questions regarding this web site contact campbell@conferenceboard.ca.
Last updated: June 27, 2007.
|